DISCLAIMER: For those of you who may be extreme GoH purists, the following build may be disturbing, as it does contain some Sci-Fi elements. To ease your concern, however, let me assure you that after this chapter those elements are gone and a pure medieval fantasy vibe is all that will remain. The unwholesome elements are my way of introducing a character that I had been using for many years in builds with friends, in a different galaxy, far, far away... [edit: Druidic magic is behind these events and causes the non-Historican elements of them to be erased from the memories of the participants after they happen, so do not be concerned that they will be entering into Historica on a full-time basis; such 'pollution' is not, and never was, my intention.]

Galaria peeked through the trees and bushes at the sight before her. Her wolfsteed, Laika, she had left back in a small meadow with the wolfsteeds of her fellow Hesperian Wolf Rangers, so that they could approach closer without being seen. Some of her rangers climbed trees for a better vantage point on the smouldering mass in the clearing.

The fireball had landed in the center of an ancient ring of druid standing stones, erected long years before the first elves had come this far west in the world. The druids themselves were gone for many centuries before Galaria's father, Fingolë the Golden, first established the kingdom of Hesperia, and that was an age ago in the land of sunset.

The smoking hulk did not look like any meteorite that Galaria had ever seen before nor like any she had heard tell of; if she were not certain that it could not be true, she would have said that it looked like metal, a giant steel cylinder that fell from the sky. As she watched, a panel on the side opened, revealing a brief glimpse of the interior as a man stepped out.

The man was clad in tan robes and wore a brown cloak over them, and carried in his hand a metal tube that vaguely resembled the hilt of a sword, though no blade was attached. His tousled, wavy brown hair framed a handsome face with a roguish grin. His eyes moved over the landscape swiftly and Galaria shrank back into the bushes instinctively.

Soon the man was fully out of the sky-cylinder, and another, also clad in tan robes and brown cloak, carrying the same type of metal tube followed, and then came a small army of helmeted and armored figures carrying some sort of black thing in their hands, held almost like she had seen a crossbowman hold his weapon during a marksmanship contest two summers before. Weapons of some sort. With the exception of two of them, the armored figures were clad in greens and browns, camouflaged for thick forests. They quickly made a defensive perimeter around the sky-cylinder.

The two cloaked figures examined one of the druid columns, together with one of the white-and-green clad figures. Galaria could hear their voices talking in a strange tongue, one not spoken in Historica, at least not by elves, dwarves, men, orcs, drow, or any of the tribes of Nocturnus that she knew of.

The other white-and-green figure came over, and both armored ones took off their helmets, revealing a brown-haired man and a golden-haired woman.

The woman clearly thought that they ought to move away from the crash site, by her hand gestures, and followed that up by stepping past the Druid column. To Galaria's amazement, her clothing and gear changed the instant she passed the standing stone, looking like a typical human warrior woman with a bow and quiver.

The armored man, amazement on his face, also stepped past and underwent a similar transformation.

"That was incredible," the man said in perfect Hesperian Elvish. "I cannot believe what just happened, Thorra; can you?"

"No, Gree, I cannot," replied the woman in equally excellent Hesperian. "Henjin, Bu'kanjin, you two step across now and see what happens."

The robed-and-cloaked men also stepped through and were transformed, the one called Henjin now wearing ancient druidic armor and Bu'kanjin wearing a different style of the same.

The others wearing armor gathered around the edge of the stones and began to take off their helmets, revealing more men, of colors more familiar to Kaliphlin traders than Avalonian forestmen.

Suddenly one of Galaria's Rangers, Ankeria, stood up and drew back her bow, letting an arrow fly. In the blink of the same moment, the man called Henjin caught the arrow that was aimed for his heart in his hand and Bu'kanjin fired an arrow of his own, piercing Ankeria in the neck and killing her instantly.

The humans were on high alert with arrows nocked on taut bowstrings, with more of them stepping across the stones and transforming all the time. Galaria's small band was vastly outnumbered and, by the signs of it, outmatched in skill. She stepped out from behind the foliage she was using as cover, right in front of the Henjin, the Sky-Man, and said, "Put down your weapons, we mean you no harm."

Henjin smiled at her and she felt her fate entwine with his as his voice spoke to her. "Greetings, we are strangers here in this land. My name is Henjin Quilones, son of Henjin Quilones, and this is my brother, Bu'kanjin. We have journeyed far across the heavens, called here to this land by the Force."

Galaria nodded. "And I am Galaria, daughter of Fingolë the Golden, the king of Hesperia. If you have been called here, it was not by us, but perhaps by the power of the druids in whose circle of stones you landed and whose armor you bear. There is an ancient prophecy that said that the true king of Historica, the great and vast land of which Hesperia is but a tiny part, would arise, after a star fell from the heavens, to battle and defeat the dark scourge of the land. Are you he?" asked the elf maiden.

Henjin shook his head. "No, I know nothing of your prophecies, and I am no king. A humble Knight am I, not yet even a Master. But I shall gladly join you and your father the king in the battle against that dark scourge. My sword and bow are at your disposal."

"And mine," said Bu'kanjin.

"Thank you both," said Galaria. "Now, you had better follow me away from the stone ring, called Stangraf by the Druids, O Knights of Stangraf, before any orc or drow patrols come and investigate. I shall take you to Istolia, the city where my cousin governs."

"Very well," said Henjin Quilones, the newly dubbed Knight of Stangraf, and he and his companions followed the fair elf maiden into the eaves of the forest.

Thanks for looking and reading! It has been a long time since my last Hesperian build, but much has happened between then and now (moving twice, starting a new job, etc.) so it is good to be back building in the Guilds again, C&C welcome!

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(Sorry.. I really like the way you introduce your character. I presume this is your Andromeda's Gates character? I like how you introduced a prophecy as well!)

It is not my AG character, actually, since this is Henjin Quilones II, whereas my AG character is Henjin Quilones CCIX, 207 generations in the future. This character was one I used in a non-Eurobricks setting for years, in a galaxy far, far away and a long time ago.

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But as you said, it is disturbing that this takes place in GoH. So now, we have jedis in Historica with powers of the force? They killed one of the elves, but they are friends a minute later?! Tomorrow a jedi will be the king of Historica! Dooom!

That being said, I have to admit this is a really cool way to introduce new characters. Nice build!

No stoning? I guess burning would be more appropriate, though. Thanks for the nice words! It is my biggest and best, in my opinion, build yet.

52 minutes ago, Lazer said:

Hi!

I like the builds, i like the idea, i like the Elves hairs!

But as you said, it is disturbing that this takes place in GoH. So now, we have jedis in Historica with powers of the force? They killed one of the elves, but they are friends a minute later?! Tomorrow a jedi will be the king of Historica! Dooom!

Well, they are not quite Jedi anymore, just more like wizard warriors. Druid magic users, with impressive reflexes and skills. Druid magic is powerful and can transform many things and call heroes from across the galaxies into a critical moment in history. It can also wipe memories and leave only fragments of a past, which is what we will learn, in subsequent chapters, has happened to Henjin and his band.

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Excellent build Henjin, definitely one of your best so far The trees are all excellent and I like the texturing around the crash site (though I can't say that I'm a big fan of the story itself ).
I do think that there is perhaps one too many shades of green here though; if you got rid of the lime green, or at least made it in more occasional patches rather than scattered throughout the build, I think it would improve the overall aesthetics

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While I like the story and build, I'm not a huge fan of crossovers. I've always imagined GoH in it's own universe.

Thanks, Windusky, I am glad you like the build. In my imagination, kind of like in the Lego Movie, all Lego is one universe and everything is connected in some way. But I can respect your difference of opinion, and I think you will not be bothered by my story going forward. This was just the character introduction and will soon be in the past.

I have to agree with @Lazer that it seems very odd that one of the elves fires on the mysterious group, is then killed, and then both sides still seem to have no trouble trusting each other

Thanks, SK! The landscape is definitely my best, though it used up every piece of foliage I own, so I'll need to get some more before I try anything larger.

The story should make more sense once I get the next chapter up, or at least I hope so.

On 2/5/2017 at 8:32 AM, LittleJohn said:

Excellent build Henjin, definitely one of your best so far The trees are all excellent and I like the texturing around the crash site (though I can't say that I'm a big fan of the story itself ).
I do think that there is perhaps one too many shades of green here though; if you got rid of the lime green, or at least made it in more occasional patches rather than scattered throughout the build, I think it would improve the overall aesthetics

Thanks for the feedback, LJ. I was a bit unsure of all of the greens myself, but I wanted to create the impression of a lush meadow, and the brighter greens served as contrast between the meadow and the forest, where more dark green was used for the ground. And all I ask is that you give the story a chance to develop with a few more chapters, and if you still do not like it, I can accept that. I knew I would be playing with fire when I dreamed up my story and would possibly upset some folks, but it was the story I wanted to tell. There will be no SW (or worse, Nexo) elements to the story henceforth, just fyi.

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as for the colours, I have to agree with LJ - maybe bright green instead of lime? maybe just 2-3 colours for flowers + foliage?

must also say, I dislike Sci-Fi, so happy to read your anti-pollution note at the beginning (was worried when saw this on Flickr..).

so why am I excited? well, I'm very happy to finally see/read the second part of your story! I love the druid stone circle as well as that bit of lore behind it and, to be sure, this part:

On 30/01/2017 at 8:29 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Druid magic users, with impressive reflexes and skills. Druid magic is powerful and can transform many things and call heroes from across the galaxies into a critical moment in history. It can also wipe memories and leave only fragments of a past.

well this totally reminds me of Laesonar, indeed ^^ so yes, no idea which kind of story you have in mind and mine is far from getting to a stable point, but it smells like there's a lot of potential in the air!